'n Narratiewe refleksie op negatiewe koronêre vatomleidingsoperasie-uitkomste: die spirituele belewenis van 'n chirurg

Abstract

What is the spiritual experience of a cardiac surgeon with regard to the negative outcomes after coronary artery bypass graft surgery? The overall goal of the study was to acknowledge the negative outcomes of some patients, to articulate it and to analyse it spiritually. The question and the overall goal were addressed by means of an autoethnographic, interdisciplinary, narrative research project. Using creative chapter titles the reader is accompanying the researcher-surgeon on a spiritual journey. The complex nature of cardiac surgery is softened with simple metaphors. From the heart the reader is introduced to the emotional and spiritual remorse the cardiac surgeon experiences with negative outcomes after coronary surgery. Much has been written about spirituality in medicine, but with modesty the missing puzzle pieces are pointed out to justify the relevance of the study. It is not the clear window of quantitative research but the soft qualitative light of the lantern that is used to explain the method of research. The researcher-surgeon‟s individual series of 1 750 patients who had a CABG is presented as a living document. The hermeneutical investigation is done with the view to spiritual transformation. Basic health and a good lifestyle that is subjected to scrutiny assume that amongst other things, leaves (salads) are to be eaten and not to be smoked (tobacco). Such a lifestyle is to a large extent a patient‟s free choice, which is part of the order of creation. As an evocative question the researchersurgeon looks again upon his image of God. God is not being questioned or proved, but God is drawn into the researcher-surgeon‟s time-space, to make sense of the negative (and positive) outcomes after CABG. In a shared Christian spirituality, using the Delphi survey, co-surgeons are invited to elucidate together on spiritual issues of practice. The researcher-surgeon‟s disappointments in practice are relieved and his image of God is strengthened. The spiritual experience of CABG outcomes can anew the confirmation of the believing surgeon that God is present as Creator and God‟s desire for a relationship with each patient who undergoes a CABG. In that sense there is spiritual value added to the many skills of cardiac surgeons.